Have some fun: What's your favorite Christmas Carol?

Notice the term is "Christmas Carol", not holiday song. See, "Jingle Bells" or even "White Christmas" doesn't really count, though that last one's a pretty song. Nope, a Christmas carol is distinctively well, ahem, religious in a quasi sort of manner. You know what I mean? Something you may remember from singing in a choir sometime in church, or if you went to a Christian school, or a school where they allowed songs which celebrated the *Christ* part of Christmas. But not "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" or the above mentioned "Frosty", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" or other ones I seem to be blocking on at the moment.


When George Winston (very cool pianist with a distinctive open sound) came out with his album entitled "December", I'd never heard of this guy. Never heard of his music, didn't know anything about the album. But I loved the cover. It's the only album I ever bought purely because the cover struck me as something of beauty and made me think there must be good music inside. And wow was I right.


Every year I love to dig out his renditions of "The Holly and the Ivy" and "Some Children See Him" among others. See, George is very cagey about his written music. Oh yes, he does write it down, often with the help of a guy named Chip Davis. BUT he doesn't often release these written pieces and I grab them up when I can find them. I'm not so hot at playing by ear, but give me notes and I can generally make something of them. George Winston's notes, however, are deceptively simple to hear. MUCH practice is required, at least for me. But then, I can't stand to play something and have it just sound only kind of like it's supposed to. You know? Not that I'm a total perfectionist, but something's got to sound goooood. And at least also have the spirit of the piece and make the listener feel inspired, cheered or blessed by the hearing of it.
So here's the challenge. I wish I could give a prize, but, won't it be fun to check back here and see what stuff people have pulled out as their favorite Carols? That's kinda a prize in its own, don't you think? Go ahead.....even if you can't spell "Wenceslaus" (as in Good King Wenceslaus) or whatever, just have at it. Have fun :-) If we don't keep these carols alive in one manner or another, we're eventually going to be destined to hearing only "Frosty" "Rudolph" and "Santa" at Christmas time. And that would be, just, well.....wrong :-(
If you post stanzas of verses in your comments, I'll print them all. Hey, friends...it's not too late. There's 12 days of Christmas. At least. Remember, the concept is to keep the spirit of Christmas all year long. I can't wait to see what folks might write back! Enjoy!!!